Medicare Home Health Care Services

To get Medicare home health care, a person must meet all of these four conditions:

• A doctor must decide that the person needs medical care in the home and make a plan for care at home.

• The person must need at least one of the following: intermittent (and not full time) skilled nursing care, or physical therapy, or speech language pathology services; or continue to need occupational therapy.

• The person must be homebound. This means that he or she is normally unable to leave home. Being homebound means that leaving home is a major effort. When the person leaves home, it must be infrequent, for a short time, or to get medical care, or to attend religious services.

• The home health agency caring for the person must be approved by the Medicare program.

For more information about Medicare, call 800-MEDICARE or visit the Medicare Web site (www.medicare.gov).